Bespoke is the new black. Or, rather, bespoke skincare is the newest wisdom in product formulation for skincare products, especially in natural and organic based lines. We’ve come across two stellar lines this past year who are both formulating skincare product lines specific to personal and individual needs.

Odacité

The first, Odacité, is created by founder Romain Gaillard, a French native who makes his home currently in Southern California. For a novel approach and because it’s important to remember that our menfolk need TLC too, we tried out his line of products that were formulated specifically for an adult male whose lifestyle includes some sun exposure and late nights.

Before the products were formulated, senior Skincoach Nairi Khatchadourian sent along a detailed questionnaire to find out what sorts of skincare concerns our tester had. This is the response, along with the product types and explanations, that were received:

Dark Circles Under Eyes: The Odacité skincare includes a “great concentration of Tocopherols (natural Vitamin E) that is known to help with dark circles. It also includes bioavailable Vitamin C of rosehip oil that helps strengthen blood vessel walls, and tea extracts that work wonders at reducing dark circles.”

Dark circles can appear as a result of several factors: lifestyle, genetic, lack of sleep, aging.

Suntegrity sunscreen is their product to deflect the harmful effects of overexposure to the sun. It’s an effective product which is saying a lot for something that is so respectful of natural ingredients use. Sunscreens still are something of the Holy Grail for natural-based skincare products.

Cleanser. The cleanser includes Tamanu oil from the rain-forest of Madagascar which is a super healing oil. They get the wild-crafted oil from Madagascar because wild plants retain the highest potency. Tamanu oil is proven to aid in the elimination of waste material and toxins from the capillaries. The cleanser also comes with two sponges that encourage lymph circulation when used on the face.

Immortelle Toner.Toning helps shrink pores and restores healthy skin Ph balance. They suggest using the Toner as an after shave. Its base is Aloe Vera so it hydrates the skin and reduces puffiness.

The moisturizer is formulated with pure virgin coconut oil and organic aloe. These boost skin hydration by locking in moisture. The fresh organic aloe also heals. It is also, “Formulated with DMAE a natural skin firming agent. Long term use of DMAE has been clinically proven to greatly decrease the appearance of loose and sagging skin. DMAE also helps prevent and reduce age spots.”

Our Greening Beauty test subject felt a significant improvement in his skincare quality after using only these products for three weeks. Not any kind of a Metrosexual, it was difficult to convince him to use any kind of skincare. But after using Odacité Bespoke Skincare, we now have a firm believer in natural, crafted to order, skincare.

Absolution

The founder of this organic skincare line from France, Isabelle Carron, describes it as “the first unisex bespoke certified organic cosmetics brand.” She has created it from minerals, vitamins and wild plant extracts. The line is formulated with simplicity in mind. It is the founder’s goal to offer a few products that can answer a variety of your skin’s needs.

This she does with a truly original approach to “bespoke.” Basics of the line such as La Crème du Jour and La Solution + Energie are packaged by themselves but formulated to be sold together so that the client, themselves, can mix the ingredients according to their skin’s needs at that moment.

This approach earned Carron a Beyond Beauty Jury Award and a Wallpaper Magazine Design Award in 2010. The product line is also Eco Cert-ified. The Day Cream (recyclable)-plastic jar/pump is beveled inward at the top so that when you pump a bit of the cream out onto the little “bowl” it allows you to spritz a drop of the Energy Solution onto it so that you can mix it all up right there with your fingertips, just before applying. Other “La Solution” varieties are: Eclat (Clarifying/brightening), Anti-Age, and Controle.

The ingredients are potent: Olive tree flavonoids, Aloe Vera, Borage oil whose anti-aging actions is combined with a mineral sunscreen (Mica) – all of this in the day cream. And in the booster you have Echinacea, Edelweiss and Extract of Thermus Thermophillus to name a few. [That last-named ingredient is particularly effective in protecting your skin from air pollution, UV ad electromagnetic radiations.

Our hard work is paying off! This year, you and thousands of Campaign for Safe Cosmetics supporters urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get cancer-causing formaldehyde out of Brazilian Blowout and other hair-straightening products.

And recently, you signed the petition to the Obama Administration asking for prevention to be a major focus of our country’s cancer plan (we joined our allies at the White House in May and dropped off all 73,000 signatures!).

Well, we have exciting news: you’ve helped build the momentum for Congressional leaders to reintroduce the federal Safe Cosmetics Act in the House of Representatives Friday.

This bill (H.R.2359) would give the FDA the authority it needs to ensure that personal care products are free of harmful substances like lead, 1,4-dioxane and chemicals linked to cancer.

Existing law, which has not been updated in 70 years, allows companies to use these and other toxic chemicals in products we use on our bodies every day. We know that the U.S. can do better to protect our families and to remain a world leader in the marketplace!

Please urge your House members to co-sponsor the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011. Here’s how:

2. Call them. Use our Legislator Lookup, dial the number for your federal Representative (we’re not contacting Senators yet), and use the email text as a guide for your message to the staff person who answers the phone. Calls usually take about 1 minute, but they are really important!

3. Visit them. You have the right to meet with your Representative (or his or her staffers) to tell them that you want safe cosmetics. Check out our Legislative Toolkit to learn more.

Please take action and spread the word!

Thanks for all you do to make cosmetics safe for all of us.

Sincerely,
Lisa, Mia, Stacy, Jamie, Marisa, Nancy and all of us at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

30 times sweeter than sugar, Stevia, the herb-derived non-caloric sweetener that has replaced those others recently, is actually a beauty remedy as well!

It comes from a small green plant (stevia rebaudiana) found in Paraguay, the native Guarani Indians have apparently always used it to sweeten their drinks.

It’s also good for fruit salads and to sweeten whipped cream!

For your beauty regimen, its ultra-sweet power gives it its super hydrating properties, particularly for your entire body. Its “steviosides” not only moisturize but also soften the skin. Melvita makes an exquisite blend of thym infused honey and stevia called Apicosma that reveals ultra-soft, creamy rich and touchable arms, legs and all-over. You can also try blending some of your own beauty Super Potions using packets of Stevia that you find at your health food store.

BUDDHA NOSE SELECTED AS A TOP 10 FINALIST IN THE BRITISH AIRWAYS “FACE OF OPPORTUNITY” CONTEST

New York based business owner, Amy Galper, is a Top 10 Finalist in the British Airways Face of Opportunity Contest for 2010. Ms. Galper, who is owner of BUDDHA NOSE LTD, created a video pitch highlighting the expanding international distribution of her organic body care brand.

As one of the Top 10 companies, Amy is eligible to win a travel grant from British Airways, which includes 10 round trip tickets anywhere in the world– to meet “face to face” with distributors and international customers.

As a Top 10 finalist, Amy Galper’s video pitch will be part of a final round of voting, which begins on December 10, 2010 and ends December 17, 2010 at midnight to determine the top 3 finalists. Each of the three finalists will have approximately 5 minutes to pitch their global business plan and demonstrate how winning a British Airways Travel Grant will benefit their business and allow them to better meet their business objectives. The panel judges will include:
– Bill Rancic: entrepreneur, best-selling author and first season winner of The Apprentice
– Bethenny Frankel: celebrated natural food chef, creator of the Skinnygirl Margarita, and New York Times best-selling author of Naturally Thin and The Skinnygirl Dish
– Barbara Corcoran: Corcoran group (sold in 2001 for $70M), best-selling author, investor on ABC’s SharkTank and contributor to the Today Show and other media outlets

Amy Galper was selected in this national competition out of a group of approximately 2400 entries and, as a finalist, has already won an invitation to participate in three days of events in New York and London during February 2, 3, and 4, as well as a round trip ticket to any destination British Airways flies to around the world, to further her business.

“When a woman walks into a salon, usually she’s asked ‘Cut or color?’ When a woman walks into 2Moss, we ask her, ‘What shall we do today for the beauty and health of your hair?”

So explains Mme. Elyane Moschos, the petite Parisian whose vision to create a line of natural hair care products devoted primarily to the health and overall well-being of a person’s head of hair led her to also develop this Hair Spa concept, 2Moss.

Truly apart from any hair salon I’ve ever had the occasion to visit, L’instant 2Moss is billed asL’institut du Bien-Etre et de la Beaute du Cheveu. In translation that means, Institute for the Beauty and Well-being of Your Hair. Everything that happens here is about your hair, from roots to tips.

Hair Therapy

What makes it so different? First of all, when you arrive, you are welcomed into your own private Spa room with dimmed lights and the faint aromatherapy from the salon products themselves – elegant, clean with a slight hint of peppered fruit, macadamia and Rosier Muscat. You are asked to disrobe from the top up and given a comfortable, draping cape to put over yourself as you sink into the specially imported massage chairs from Japan and prop your feet up on the elevated footrest.

L’instant Absolu is one of the 2Moss hair spa services designed to invite you in to a deep hair therapy session and still get you out in time to get back to work or pick up the kids after school. The session itself is 45 minutes and consists of a generous application of 2Moss deep conditioning oil treatment followed by a head, neck and shoulder massage. Once the oil has really penetrated deep into the scalp and roots, your chair is reclined and your neck is placed into the salon sink where your hair is washed not once, but twice, and followed by another deep application of conditioning treatment which is left on your hair as your head is wrapped in a warm towel. At this point, the esthetician asks, what type of tea would you like? The whole treatment is finished up with a Blow-dry done so expertly that it looks like you’ve just spent the last 4 hours at the salon instead of the 1 hour and 10 minutes that has actually passed.

Just now at the start of the Paris Spring/ Summer Fashion Shows 2010, and I can think of a couple dozen hundred women who could use some serious hair therapy. Honestly, this is the type of head therapy that can really make you feel lots better – instantly. Beauty industry experts frequently ask women what is the one beauty treatment that makes a woman feel more beautiful right away? Nails? Facial?…Hair always comes out the winner. A woman feels beautiful when she feels well-coiffed. 2Moss takes it that much farther, making you feel well-cared for all the way down to your roots…and beyond!

Women who work under the lights, such as runway lights and film and TV set lights – models and actresses – know all too well the daily stress put on their hair from the constant blow-drying, the silicone infused products, the ammonia coloring, the pulling, the lacquering, the burning heat. We submit to this in order to look presentable, in order to feel beautiful.

L’instant 2Moss offers us another way to feel beautiful, from the inside out. You may walk into the spa (I hesitate to use the word salon as this is really more of a spa ritual, for the hair) with fried ends and lifeless hair, but you will walk out with ends that are supple, glossy, a scalp that is revitalized and a temptingly soft, touchable, bouncing head of hair. No cut, no color required, though, of course, optional. Ahead of the curve in the organic and natural beauty product trend, one line of the 2Moss shampoos and conditioners are developed for those of us who have roots that tend toward oily but ends that tend toward dry.

“We took the concept of a natural products-based hair salon and went just that much further,” explains Moschos, who first developed her EcoCert and CosmeBio certified products in 2002. She began by offering her line, two types of shampoo – Moisturizing and Moisture Purifying, two types of deep conditioners – Moisturizing for the tendency toward dry hair and Moisture Purifying for the oily or mixed hair, an oil deep penetrating treatment and a day cream, to existing salons and spas such as Termes de Monaco. She saw quick success with her line; So much so that she opened up her own Institute in 2007 in central Paris near the Madeleine.

The Institute For The Beauty and Well Being of Your Hair (L’institut du Bien-Etre et de la Beaute’ du Cheveu) is tucked away in a little pedestrian zone that is reminiscent of the small squares you find in the south of France. The Paparazzi Cafe is just across from 2Moss which is slightly ironic as this is one of those places where a celebrity would surely feel protected and tucked away. 2Moss has also graciously remembered to include men into their spa services with an offering called Bonne Mine and have also developed one for young mothers called Jeune Maman. Their must-have product is the Crème de Jour which Moschos recommends using on your hair as you would a daily cream on your face. Not difficult to do as it smells intoxicating, it’s 99.18% natural ingredient based, and it instantly repairs dry ends. L’instant 2Moss, a jewel of a Hair Spa…in Paris.5, Square de L’Opera Louis Jouvet, 75009 Paris, between the theatres Edouard VII and The Athenee